Mit Students Counting Cards

Posted on 7/26/2022 admin

Must Watch: 21 Trailer - Card Counting MIT Students

Mit Students Counting Cards Movie
Mit Students Counting Cards In Las Vegas

'21' is the fact-based story about six MIT students who were trained to become experts in card counting and subsequently took Vegas casinos for millions in winnings.
The movie 21 is about a group of MIT students who 'count cards' to improve their probability of winning at Blackjack in casinos. Have you ever wondered what card counting is and if it is legal? Card Counting is not illegal. You cannot get arrested for counting cards in a casino, however the casino (if they suspect you are a card counter) may.
So card counting is simply using a system to keep track of the ratio of low cards to high cards. Step 1: Assign A Value To Every Card. With Hi-Lo, the most common card counting system, the card values are as follows: 2-6 = +1; 7-9 = 0; 10-Ace= -1; As each card is dealt, you will either add 1, subtract 1, or do nothing based on each card’s value.

by Alex Billington
November 16, 2007
Source:Yahoo

The long-running New York Times bestseller that has become a cultural phenomenon, Bringing Down the House is an action-filled caper carried out by the unlikeliest of cons - supersmart geeks. Gambling pervaded the M.I.T. Campus, and genius kids with money and glittering futures were just as likely to be found in a Paradise Island casino as in the school library.

I don't know what it is, but I LOVE heist movies. I just can't get enough of them. Ocean's 13 was one of the best movies this entire summer, and I'm in the midst of watching The Italian Job again. Another movie (that is somewhat a heist movie) that has just shot its way to the top of my must see list for 2008 is 21. It has the absolute perfect cast: Across the Universe's Jim Sturgess in the lead, Kevin Spacey as the teacher and leader, the delectable and delicious Kate Bosworth, my new favorite comedic actor Aaron Yoo, and a commanding Laurence Fishburne. Then you throw in cards (and my love for poker), schemes and making money, and Vegas, and I'm hooked.

Watch the trailer for 21:

[flv:21-trailer.flv 502 238]

21 is directed by Robert Luketic, who previously directed Legally Blonde, Win a Date with Tad Hamilton!, and Monster-in-Law. The film is based on a book titled 'Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions' by Ben Mezrich. The script was written by Peter Steinfeld (Analyze That, Be Cool) and Allan Loeb (Things We Lost in the Fire). 21 arrives in theaters next year on March 28th, 2008.

Sounds cool. It's Blackjack not Poker though..

mateo on Nov 19, 2007

Finally!!! I've been waiting for this since they first reported it a while back. Over a year ago if i'm not mistaken.

c00lburn on Nov 19, 2007

Looks really great. But let's remember: this is fiction. I was in the MIT blackjack team for a couple of years, and although the basic premise of this story is true, the details are made up (or greatly exaggerated). No one got beat up, for instance. And the team was not some secret thing - they recruited using posters and met in classrooms. That aside, it looks like a fun flck and I will be the first one in line when it hits the theaters. Just keep in mind it's just a movie.

BJPlayer on Nov 20, 2007

This movie is based on the story of the MIT Blackjack team: it does not really stick to the facts. Atcually the team was mostly composed in Asian members.

21 trailer on Nov 20, 2007

The MIT team has had many incarnations, and I have played in or known people in many of them. I would not say that it was 'mostly composed of' asian students, but a few key members were asian during the time depicted in the movie. Pretty much anyone who had the inclination and could pass the test could join, as far as I know.

BJ21 on Nov 22, 2007

I worked on this film as a cocktail waitress at the Riviera Hotel and Casino. From the trailer it looks like it will be a good Blackjack film. See you at the movies!

LasVegasGinger on Mar 6, 2008

What are the names of +5, +6, +10 and +18?????????

Dean on Jun 3, 2008

I have just watched this trailer. It is amazing!

Custom essay on Sep 17, 2009

I agree with BJPlayer. The movie is great, it tells you a true story, but there are some mistakes. For example in the movie, a math professor (Kevin Spacey) leads the team. The 21 true story reveals that the real MIT Blackjack Team was led by three students, none of whom were professors.

Forum 21 on Oct 8, 2009

Igot news for you people who believe this nonsense. I have counted cards. I have played progressive. One day I won a solid seven hours I never busted six in a row in that time. The next day I went three hours before I busted six in a row. Then over the course of the next couple days I busted six in a row three times in an hour nad a half. I know from experience these MIT students are lying. You can only win millions if you are betting serious money. Even if they had people take cards before them and bow out it still doesn't mean they won big. For one thing if they played progressive they would have to bet big.When I played progressive I won religiously $350 an hour. That is starting at $10. So if there was a table you could start at minimum bet of $100 you could win $3,500 an hour if you could double five times after your first bet and usually you can't. On the bigger tables you start at $500 and only go to $2,500.I say the MIT students are a bunch of liars and now way they won even a million. Because if you're at a table betting $1,000 and then you throw down $5,000 for one thing how many will you win? No guarantee. If you win 2 out of three it would take you along time. THen you luck changes and you lose 2 out of 3.I know this for a fact. If you play according to how you should play like double and split what you are suppose to you will win nothing. The only time I ever won was when I didn't double or split anything. Or when I played progressive. When you double and split you might go ahead $1,000 and then an hour later you will be even. When these MIT kids laid down $10,000 and lost the next win means they are even. Black jack is an even game, except for one little thing. You play to increase your hand and you bust then the dealer wins. They say Black jack you can even put the odds in your favor and this is total bullshit. All games are in their favor. Sure you hear of people winning all the time. But you never hear when they lose. You go to a Casino 10 times and you will never win. It is a waste of time. You can't beat them. Big deal you sit there and play black jack for $5 for 3 hours and only lose $2000. You still threw your money away. So MIT students you are lying you might have made $100,000 or a few more, but just like everyone else you would never admit you lost. It was a good story. You Asian bastards love to gamble and so do the Swamp Guineas, but Germans, Swedes, Finns ad Norwegians aren't into the gambling thing. People should not allow the Casinos to be anymore than an even bet. If you play a bet on roulette wheel and let's say you bet $10. IN 100 rolls you will lose at least 56 out of 100 and this is why they win. Black Jack seven players play and 5 bust trying to get better hands. Then one wins and the other is a push. This is why they win. Don't go and get the bug. Why ever give the Casinos any of your money. For one thing say you travel four hours by car to get to the Casinos. That means 8 hours wasted. You'll burn $100 in gas. So you are already down before you start. Leave the Casinos alone. Because if you win you will go back and then lose and then you are out two days. If you lose you'll want to go back and win what you lost. I have played black jack at least 200 hours and I think I know the game.

Joe.Bassett on Feb 7, 2012

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Bringing Down the House
Author	Ben Mezrich
Country	United States
Language	English
Subject	Blackjack
Genre	Non-fiction
Publisher	Free Press
9 September 2003
Media type	Print, e-book
Pages	257 pp
ISBN	1-4176-6563-7
Followed by	Busting Vegas

Synopsis[edit]

The book's main character is Kevin Lewis, an MIT graduate who was invited to join the MIT Blackjack Team in 1993. Lewis was recruited by two of the team's top players, Jason Fisher and Andre Martinez. The team was financed by a colorful character named Micky Rosa, who had organized at least one other team to play the Vegas strip. This new team was the most profitable yet. Personality conflicts and card counting deterrent efforts at the casinos eventually ended this incarnation of the MIT Blackjack Team.

Characters[edit]

Kevin Lewis[edit]

Although not revealed in the book, Kevin Lewis's real name is Jeff Ma, an MIT student who graduated with a degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1994. Ma has since gone on to found a fantasy sports company called Citizen Sports (a stock market simulation game).^[2]

Mezrich acknowledges that Lewis is the sole major character based on a single, real-life individual; other characters are composites. Nonetheless, Lewis does things in the book that Ma himself says did not occur.^[1]

Jason Fisher[edit]

One of the leaders of the team, Jason Fisher, is modeled in part after Mike Aponte. After his professional card counting career, Aponte went on to win the 2004 World Series of Blackjack, and started a company called the Blackjack Institute. Mike also has his own blog.

Micky Rosa[edit]

The team's principal leader, Micky Rosa is a composite character based primarily on Bill Kaplan, JP Massar, and John Chang.^[1] Bill Kaplan founded and led the MIT Blackjack Team in the 1980s and co-managed the team with Massar and Chang from 1992 to 1993, during which time Jeff Ma joined the then nearly 80 person team.^[3]^[4] Chang has questioned the book's veracity, telling The Boston Globe, 'I don't even know if you want to call the things in there exaggerations, because they're so exaggerated they're basically untrue.'^[1] Whether the MIT Blackjack Team was 'founded ... in the 1980s' is in dispute. An article in The Tech, January 16, 1980, suggests that Roger Demaree and JP Massar were already running the team and teaching a hundred MIT students to play blackjack by the third week of the 1980s, implying that the team had been founded in the late 1970s, before Kaplan joined, although Demaree and Massar have mostly avoided publicity.^[5]

Controversy[edit]

Boston Magazine and Boston Globe articles[edit]

In its March 2008 edition, Boston magazine ran an article investigating long-lingering claims that the book was substantially fictional.^[6]The Boston Globe followed up with a more detailed story on April 6, 2008.^[1]

Though published as a factual account and originally categorized under 'Current Events' in the hardcover Free Press edition, Bringing Down the House 'is not a work of 'nonfiction' in any meaningful sense of the word,' according to Globe reporter Drake Bennett. Mezrich not only exaggerated freely, according to sources for both articles, but invented whole parts of the story, including some pivotal events in the book that never happened to anyone.

Disclaimer and leeway[edit]

The book contains the following disclaimer:

The names of many of the characters and locations in this book have been changed, as have certain physical characteristics and other descriptive details. Some of the events and characters are also composites of several individual events or persons.^[7]

This disclaimer allows broad leeway to take real events and real people and alter them in any way the author sees fit. But Mezrich went further, both articles say.

Historical inaccuracies[edit]

The following events described in Bringing Down the House did not occur:

Underground Chinatown Casino. The underground casino used for Kevin's final test (pp. 55–59) is entirely imaginary, according to Mike Aponte and Dave Irvine.^[6]
Use of Strippers to Cash Out Chips. Also according to Aponte and Irvine,^[6]strippers were never recruited to cash out the team's chips, as described on pp. 149–153.
Shadowy Investors. The 'shadowy investors' first referenced on p. 3 are a major source of intrigue for Mezrich's story, but did not exist, according to Aponte and Irvine.^[6] The investors in the team included the players, one of Kaplan's college roommates, a few of Kaplan's Harvard Business School section mates, and Kaplan's friends and family members.
Physical Assault. The scene in which Fisher is beaten up (pp. 221–225) is imaginary. 'No one was ever beaten up,'^[6] according to Aponte and Irvine. Moreover, Jeff Ma claims they have never been roughed up by the casinos they played in. Still there were times when casino employees had tried to intimidate the members of the team.
Player Forced to Swallow Chip. In a scene on pp. 215–218, Micky Rosa recounts a story in which Vincent Cole—a private investigator for Plymouth Investigations—forces a member of a count team to swallow a purple casino chip while detaining the player in a back room. Sources in the Globe described the story as 'implausible,' and none recalled having heard it.^[1]
Theft of $75,000. One MIT player, Kyle Schaffer, did lose $20,000 when it was stolen from a desk drawer.^[1] Mezrich inflates the amount of the theft by 275% and turns the desk drawer into a safe pried dramatically from a wall. Moreover, the robbery scene (pp. 240–244) creates the impression that a team member or Vincent Cole was the likely culprit. Schaffer says the theft was likely unrelated to blackjack, noting that $100,000 or more in casino chips also inside the drawer was left untouched ('strongly suggesting that the thieves had no idea of their worth'^[1]).
Forcible Entry to Kevin Lewis's Apartment. Kevin hurries from the scene of the robbery to his own apartment (pp. 244–245) to make sure all is well. Nothing has been stolen, but Kevin finds 'a single purple casino chip sitting on his kitchen table.' The implication is that the chip is a calling card left by Vincent Cole as a warning to Kevin. This scene again asks readers to accept that the chip-swallowing story is factual (or at least was actually in circulation among MIT counters as a myth).^{[citation needed]}

Sequel[edit]

Though not originally intended to have a sequel, Mezrich followed this book with Busting Vegas (ISBN0060575123). Busting Vegas is about another splinter group from the MIT Blackjack Team. The events depicted in Busting Vegas actually took place before Bringing Down the House. Despite heavy marketing, Busting Vegas did not do as well as Bringing Down the House. It did, however, briefly appear on The New York TimesBest Seller list. Despite again being listed as non-fictionBusting Vegas showed similar inaccuracies in recounting the facts with the main character Semyon Dukach contesting several of the events depicted in the book.^[8]

Film adaptation[edit]

A film adaptation of the book, titled 21 (so as not to cause confusion with the unrelated 2003 Queen Latifah vehicle Bringing Down the House), was released in theaters on March 28, 2008.^[9] The film is from Columbia Pictures and was directed by Robert Luketic.

Kevin Spacey produced the film, and also portrays the character of Micky Rosa. Other cast members include Laurence Fishburne, Kate Bosworth, Jim Sturgess, Jacob Pitts, Liza Lapira, Aaron Yoo, and Sam Golzari.^[10]^[11]Jeff Ma, Bill Kaplan, and Henry Houh, another team player from the 1990s, have brief cameo roles in the movie. 21 was filmed outside the buildings of MIT, in Boston University classrooms and dorms, throughout Cambridge and Boston, and in Las Vegas.

Says Mezrich, '...Kevin Spacey came to me about making a movie. He read the Wired adaptation^[12] of the book and became interested... The funny thing is filming may take place in casinos such as The Mirage and Caesar's Palace, where the real thing happened.'^[13]

Notes[edit]

^ ^a^b^c^d^e^f^g^hBennett, Drake (2008-04-06). 'House of cards'. Boston Globe. The New York Times Company. Retrieved 2008-05-06.
^'About Us / The Protrade Team'(English). Citizen Sports Network. 2008. Retrieved 2008-05-06.
^'Archived copy'. Archived from the original on 2008-04-15. Retrieved 2008-04-12.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) The Allston-Brighton Tab: Kaplan Inspires Hollywood Film '21.' Retrieved April 12, 2008.
^'Archived copy'. Archived from the original on 2012-02-16. Retrieved 2012-02-17.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) MickeyRosa.com 'House of Cards' Retrieved July 31, 2008.
^http://tech.mit.edu/archives/VOL_099/TECH_V099_S0589_P002.pdf
^ ^a^b^c^d^eGonzalez, John (March 2008). 'Ben Mezrich: Based on a True Story'. Boston magazine. Metrocorp, Inc. Archived from the original on 2008-12-18. Retrieved 2008-05-06.
^Mezrich, Ben, Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions (New York: Free Press, 2002), p. iv.
^'ThePOGG Interviews - Semyon Dukach - MIT Card Counting Team Captain'. Retrieved 10 November 2012.
^Production Weekly: Luketic Hacking Las Vegas. Retrieved March 6, 2007.Archived January 11, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
^benmezrich.com. Retrieved March 6, 2007Archived May 15, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
^Kevin Der (2005-09-30). 'MIT Alumnus and 'Busting Vegas' Author Describe Experience of Beating the House'. The Tech. Retrieved 2008-03-29.
^Mezrich, Ben (September 2002). 'Wired 10.09: Hacking Las Vegas'. Wired. Retrieved 2008-05-14.
^Zhang, Jenny (2002-10-25). 'Card Counting Gig Nets Students Millions'. The Tech, MIT Newspaper (Issue 50 ed.). Retrieved 2008-05-14.